I am becoming more and more confident in talking on the radio. I am slowly developing my voice — my on-air personality. There is still room for improvement; namely in the transition from Stuarto’s show to mine, but I’ll get there eventually. Last Friday’s show was centered around indie-folk again, with plenty of psychedelic folk, orchestral folk, and folk-pop as well.

Durham, NC band Bombadil are back with a new album called All That The Rain Promises. If you had the honor of hearing the band’s previous LP, Tarpits And Canyonlands, you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Bombadil creates an off-beat approach to folk-pop with odd lyrics and a unique songwriting style. You definitely get that on the new album.

It appears there is truth behind the popular phrase about time speeding by the older you get. After hitting the ripe age of 30 back in September and taking a nice little road trip from my home north of Seattle to the Southwest town of Albuquerque at the end of that month, time seems to have slipped by with ease. And it appears I haven’t done one of these podcast things since July!

2009 is a tough year to judge. I’ve checked out more albums this year than any year in the past. Well over 1,000. And there have been quite a few great ones as well. When this list began, it had 110 albums. I abandoned my top 33 and 1/3 for 45, and then said “screw it” and upped the number to an even 50. These are the top notch albums of the year, all worthy of praise.

There are a lot of swirling sounds within Bombadil‘s Tarpits And Canyonlands. On one end it is minimalistic — stripped to its most basic components, “Sad Birthday” is piano and percussion with a slew of vocalists. But it’s not minimal, as even two instruments can create a sound all-encompassing. Add the collective of vocalists and precisely placed hand claps and the result is a sound much like that of Slaraffenland. But Bombadil cannot be limited to mere comparisons — the light instrumentation and experimental folk sounds …